According to the ministry, Maharashtra remained at the top with the total cases at 1,985, including 217 patients who have recovered/discharged and 149 patients died.
A PTI tally of figures announced by states and UTs, as of 9.30 pm, showed the total number of confirmed cases having risen to close to 2.1 lakh and the death toll to approximately 6,000, showing an increase of nearly 9,000 cases since Tuesday evening and at least 273 more fatalities in this time period.
410 civil servants in a feedback survey to the Prime Minister's Office said that the curfew should stay till the pandemic is controlled and asked to increase fiscal spending on health infrastructure to around Rs 5-10 trillion.
'People are getting admitted to hospital two to three days before their death in a very serious respiratory compromise state and they are passing away within 48 hours.' 'Those who are coming early in the disease, the minute they are suspicious that they have COVID-19, the recovery rate has been much, much, higher.' 'The moral of the story is: We must destigmatise COVID-19.' 'People should be told: 'Look, if you have anything like this, please come immediately'.'
The COVID-19 vaccination drive was successfully conducted on the first day, Additional Secretary in the Union health ministry Manohar Agnani said during a press briefing. Giving an update on COVID-19 vaccination, the health ministry said 3,352 vaccination sessions were held and 1,91,181 beneficiaries vaccinated.
Prayers were offered and sweets distributed though people mostly took the virtual route to extend wishes. People also visited temples, observing social distancing norms.
With more than 21 lakh migrant workers returning to the state as per official data, the Nitish Kumar government faces an enormous challenge in providing jobs for them.
We have no standard processes in place to address the more serious public health hazard of our lifetime, observes Aakar Patel.
According to the health ministry data, Delhi has reported the highest number of confirmed cases at 503.
The total coronavirus cases mounted to 52,14,677, while the death toll climbed to 84,372 with the virus claiming 1,174 lives in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.
The rate of doubling of COVID-19 cases has increased to 12.6 days
The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 53,946, while 34,108 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said.
The highest number of confirmed cases are from Maharashtra (748), followed by Tamil Nadu at 571 and Delhi with 523 cases. Cases in Telangana have gone up to 321, in Kerala to 314, in Uttar Pradesh to 305, while the number of cases has gone up to 274 in Rajasthan.
Of the 147 deaths reported since Saturday morning, 60 were in Maharashtra, 27 in Gujarat, 23 in Delhi, nine in Madhya Pradesh, seven in Rajasthan, five in Tamil Nadu, four each in West Bengal and Telangana, three in Uttar Pradesh, and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand.
Invoking the imagery of Goddess Sita and her father Janaka, the king of Mithila of which this north Bihar town became the capital later on, Modi said those who used to taunt the BJP over the delay in construction of Ram temple were now forced to applause.
Besides the two Deputy CMs, those who tested positive are Ashok Choudhary and Sunil Kumar, the ministers for building construction, and prohibition, excise and registration respectively.
But the numbers have continued to rise in 23 states including Bihar, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Chairing the 19th meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 through video-conference on Friday, Vardhan said India has achieved the milestone of more than 10 lakh recoveries, a recovery rate to 64.54 per cent.
According to the ministry's website, more than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comorbidities.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said career of students 'cannot be put under jeopardy for long'. 'Life has to go on. Life has to move ahead. Precious year of students cannot be wasted,' the bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Krishna Murari, said during the hearing conducted through video conferencing while paving the way for commencement of the exams as scheduled.
This is the fifth consecutive day that coronavirus infections have increased by more than 15,000. There has been a surge of 3,38,324 infections from June 1 till date.
India is the fifth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic after the United States, Brazil, Russia and the United Kingdom, according to the Johns Hopkins University data.
India saw a single-day rise of 2,796 fatalities with Bihar carrying out a reconciliation exercise of its COVID data, pushing the country's death toll to 4,73,326, while 8,895 new infections were reported, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Sunday.
Indications are that the polls could be held sometime in October-November.
A senior EC official said the COVID-19 pandemic and the flood situation were two reasons behind the decision.
The total coronavirus cases in the country have mounted to 23,29,638, while the death toll climbed to 46,091 with 834 new fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.
Around 52.46 per cent of the patients have recovered, the health ministry said. The number of active cases stood at 1,53,178 while 1,80,012 patients have recovered, it said in the daily COVID-19 update.
In a video conference with the chief ministers, fourth such interaction since March 22 when he first spoke to them about the pandemic, Modi stressed on the need for the states to strictly enforce lockdown guidelines in the coronavirus hotspots zones, and strongly pitched for the mantra of 'do gaz doori' (a distance of two yards) to protect people from the infection, according to a government statement.
Harvard Global Health Institute Director Dr Ashish Jha noted that the number of cases in India may be higher than what the data suggests because while testing has been improving, it has not been rolled out in a way that will capture all low-symptomatic patients.
The comedy of errors comes close on the heels of a similar goof up reported from the adjoining district of Arwal where the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Bollywood celebrities Priyanka Chopra and Akshay Kumar figured in the list of "beneficiaries".
A Delhi Police spokesperson said that nearly 500 personnel have tested positive for the deadly virus so far.
The major players in Bihar are the ruling alliance of the Janata Dal-United and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Opposition alliance of mahagathabandhan led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal with the Congress and three Left parties.
A tweet by the Press Information Bureau said the states which have imposed lockdown in all districts include Chandigarh, Delhi, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir and Nagaland. The other states are: Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Ladakh, Tripura, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Haryana, Daman Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Karnataka and Assam.
The number of active COVID-19 cases stands at 9,272 and as many as 1,189 people have been cured and discharged, and one has migrated, it said.
A total of 37 deaths were reported since Thursday evening of which 14 fatalities were reported from Maharashtra, nine from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh,Tamil Nadu and Telengana and one from Karnataka, ministry data stated.
Para high jumper Sharad Kumar has not met his Ukrainian coach Nikitin Yevhen for more than two years due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
With these states imposing lockdowns anew, the health ministry emphasised that the restrictions should be utilised to focus on containment, surveillance and testing in the containment and buffer zones as the key strategy for early detection of cases and fatality management.
Voters of Balgudar village in Bihar's Lakhisarai district on Wednesday boycotted the assembly elections in protest against the construction of a museum on a playground in their village.
The government's focus is on urban areas, so rural areas are neglected and the COVID situation in Bihar's villages -- neither the positive cases nor the deaths -- are reported, notes M I Khan.
Telecom industry body COAI has approached the information technology ministry for removal of fake and misleading messages from social media platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter linking spread of COVID-19 to 5G technology. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), whose members include Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, said the claims linking 5G with coronavirus are baseless as 5G networks have not yet been installed in the country and even 5G trials are yet to be started by the telecom operators. In a letter dated May 15 to MeitY additional secretary Rajendra Kumar, COAI director general S P Kochhar said: "To safeguard the national interest, we request your good office to kindly instruct all the social media platforms such as Facebook, Watsapp, Twitter, etc, to remove all such posts and misleading campaigns from their platforms on an urgent basis." People have been sharing audio and video messages on social media platforms in which 5G towers are being blamed for rise in casualties across the country even though none of the companies have installed 5G technology anywhere in India.
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